Entrust Technologies goes public

The vendor of certificate authority software announces an initial public offering of its common stock on the Nasdaq market.

19 August 19989:45 am AEST

Entrust Technologies, a vendor of
certificate authority software, announced today an initial public offering
of its common stock on the Nasdaq market.

In its first day as a public company, Entrust shares rose as much as 9 points to gain 25 percent, closing at 20.

The company began trading under the ticker "ENTU," and is offering 7.76 million shares of common stock at $16 per share, raising $124 million.

A spin-off from Northern
Telecom, Entrust plans to use the funds as working capital, and other general
corporate purposes, including product development.

The company develops, markets, and sells software that allow companies to
establish secure electronic communications on the Internet, extranets, and
intranets.

Digital certificates are similar to passports on the Internet. They are
increasingly used for secure email, credit card purchases, and also for
access to sensitive information or subscription-only services.

In January, VeriSign, which provides
security services rather than software, hit the public market and soared,
gaining more than 80 percent from its target price. Since it went public with a
target price of $14 per share, the stock has climbed steadily and was
trading today at 29.19.

Entrust's other competitors include GTE
CyberTrust Solutions, Network
Associates, and IBM. Large companies
such as Netscape also have dabbled in
Internet identity authentication.

Entrust has 398 employees and had sales of $11 million in the quarter
ending in June and $5.8 million in the year-ago quarter. The company has
53.57 million shares outstanding. The company's managing underwriting group
is led by Goldman Sachs and the comanagers are Donaldson Lufkin and
NationsBanc Montgomery Securities.